THERE was no getting away from it  the 20th
anniversary of the "Race of the Century" wasn't going to pass
without fanfare, or a timely reminder of that fabulous day in
October 1986 when two Kiwi horses stole the hearts of racing
people, and a few others besides, on both sides of the Tasman.

The reminder came three weeks ago, when Ellerslie racecourse in
Auckland staged the Bonecrusher Stakes. Shaune Ritchie, who
strapped the Crusher and is now a trainer, saddled up the
favourite, Magic Cape. This made Shaune's father Frank, who
prepared Bonecrusher, an even more interested spectator, because he
was to make the presentation to the winners.

If racing journalists like to think of story lines before a
race, they had an obvious one here. Shaune wins the race named
after Bonecrusher, and his father hands him the trophy. But when
Magic Cape ran third, the journos still had a terrific "angle"
 the race was won by the Lance O'Sullivan-trained Bonaichi,
and O'Sullivan rode Our Waverley Star in the 1986 epic.

"It's been about a bit," Frank Ritchie said last week when
The Sunday Age rang to ask whether the 20-year milestone had
made news in New Zealand. As well, Ritchie said Moonee Valley
Racing Club had invited him and his wife to be part of Cox Plate
week, but "we've got a new property here (they have moved to
Cambridge) and we are flat out, so it was a bit difficult".

Next Saturday, when the 85th Cox Plate is run, Frank Ritchie
will have runners at Ellerslie races. Bonecrusher, now 24, will be
down the road munching grass in a paddock at Takanini, where he is
cared for by Sharlene Mitchell, daughter of owner Peter Mitchell.
"He might be getting on, but he's still got the fire in him,"
Sharlene told the New Zealand Herald on the eve of the
Bonecrusher Stakes.

"Red", as he was nicknamed, is in proper retirement now. For
years after his final race in 1989  he finished with 18 wins,
of which half were in group 1s  he made racetrack appearances
in NZ and Australia. But the paddock beckoned full-time after he
led out the field for the 2003 NZ Derby at Ellerslie.

We asked Ritchie whether the legend had grown over the years.
"The Phar Laps and Carbines will live forever, and horses like Red,
they diminish somewhat," he said. "If that race hadn't occurred, I
don't think Red would have had as much legend status as he's got.
He'd have some, of course, because he won some wonderful races
there have been many, many great horses over the years, and
a few, I would suggest, up to his greatness, or close enough to it,
who don't get the same sort of kudos."

For an abiding memory of the 1986 Cox Plate, the so-called
two-horse war that had the journalists plucking out the obvious
pugilistic comparisons, Ritchie recalled the morning of the
race.

"We were all getting dressed for the races and running around, a
bundle of nerves, and Gary Stewart (Bonecrusher's jockey) was fast
asleep, absolutely out like a light," he said. Did that comfort the
trainer? "It did really, because had he been on his toes, it would
have been against character, and maybe that would have been a
negative in the race." He also remembers the crowd noise during and
after the race, how loud and sustained it was.

That night, the Bonecrusher crew celebrated at the Flower Drum
restaurant, while the Our Waverley Star camp ate, as Lance
O'Sullivan said, "toast and sandwiches" in a hotel room. "It just
shows you, doesn't it, the difference between winning and losing,"
O'Sullivan joked this week from Matamata.

O'Sullivan is part of a highly respected clan of NZ horseracing
people. His father Dave and brother Paul co-trained with huge
success, with Our Waverley Star among their many top-liners. Paul
is now landing winners as a trainer in Hong Kong, and Lance, who
had outstanding success as a jockey, now trains at the famous
Wexford Stables.

Lance plans to be in Melbourne when the "anniversary" Cox Plate
is run. It depends on whether his stayer Pentane, who won the
Auckland Cup early this year, performs well enough in the Geelong
Cup on Wednesday to press on with a Melbourne Cup start.

O'Sullivan said this week that he occasionally saw replays of
the '86 Cox Plate, but that reminders from people about the race
would come up more in the life of Frank Ritchie  "because
they won it". But his memories of that remarkable day are clear.
And if there was one recurring theme for him, it was the hype that
surrounded the race, "the match race between the two horses".

"At the end of the day, they were both Kiwis, and it was quite
amazing how the Australians really got behind the two horses," he
said. "We see 'match' races, but they rarely eventuate. There was
never one that would eventuate like that. Let's face it, they had
absolutely no respect for the opposition. They did the impossible.
If two horses in this year's Cox Plate took off like that, when
they did, they wouldn't win. I don't believe they would, anyway.
They were two super, super animals."

Bill Collins' call is inextricably bound up in that Cox Plate.
He captured that moment when the two jockeys, O'Sullivan and
Stewart, produced the unexpected and took off about 800 metres from
home. Just as Collins was telling us that "Our Waverley Star (who
was wide) will want to be Phar Lap", his voice rose: "Here's
Bonecrusherrr. He's pulled him to the outside shooting around them
and Our Waverley Star's going with it." Then, a few moments later:
"Have they gone too early?" All climaxed, of course, with
Bonecrusher racing "into equine immortality".

O'Sullivan recalled that going into the Cox Plate, Our Waverley
Star had broken the long-standing Matamata record for 1600 metres.
"He travelled three deep and he had a big weight on his back, and
he didn't just break it  he broke it by a second and a half.
He did exactly what he did in the Cox Plate: he was caught deep and
I just let him go at the half-time (800 metres) and he just got
further and further in front. And they were good horses behind
him," he recalled.

But as the fans grouped behind their choice for the Cox Plate
that year  the Crusher or OWS  there was no war of
words between the O'Sullivan and Bonecrusher camps. Far from it.
The Ritchies, said O'Sullivan, are "good people", and the Ritchies
feel the same way about the O'Sullivans. So the only "war" was on
the track, starting near the school, a landmark across the road
from the Valley. "We don't have enemies," said Lance O'Sullivan. "I
think that's pretty much the NZ way We all know how hard it
is and we were all just pleased to be a part of it all, whether we
won, ran second or ran no good."

Frank Ritchie had a similar take. "They are very professional
people," he said of the O'Sullivans. "We are in a business where we
are all competing, but really, at the end of the day, you respect
those that deserve that respect, and nobody does more than the
O'Sullivans. They did everything they could to beat us, and when
they didn't, they were gracious in defeat."

1160851185382-theage.com.auhttp://www.theage.com.au/news/horse-racing/race-of-the-century/2006/10/21/1160851185382.htmltheage.com.auThe Age2006-10-22Race of the centuryGlenn LesterSportHorseracinghttp://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2006/10/21/wbRACINGbonecrusher_wideweb__470x368,0.jpg

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